Humanizing the Soldiers who fight in our name: A Reflection on Michelle Obama’s Speech

These two political conventions have been tons of fun for me to watch, especially using twitter as a platform for instant feedback. I’ve been live-tweeting each night, and hope to continue this week. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to cut through the political rhetoric and fanfare to know what a faithful Christian prophetic critique might be. So I’ve used 12 Scriptures as my lens to evaluate the speakers. I invite you to check them out, and examine the lens you are using to critique the speeches this political season. So far, these texts have left me feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.

Let me jump in with the most sensational speech to date, Michelle Obama’s last night. First off, she did me a great service by humanizing the soldierswho fight in our names. To have a military mom introduce FLOTUS, and to have Michele share her deep passion for military families, reveals the needs of folks who really need to have our understanding. I think doing what she did – humanizing people – is meaningful and good whenever possible.

I say this as someone with few connections to the military, and as someone who comes from a faith tradition who all too often has not gotten to know those who have or are fighting in our wars. One thinks immediately of the high rates of soldier suicides and PTSD, as important realities that should be humanized for us all.

But there is a downside to humanizing our soldiers.

In humanizing our soldiers, we necessarily de-humanize their soldiers. It forces us to turn a blind eye to the injustice of the cause, to the militarism behind it all, and robs us of any sort of prophetic critique. In humanizing US military personnel without also critiquing our wars of aggression, FLOTUS either unknowingly or willfully served to legitimate US imperialism abroad. These wars are not about individual people and the cute little girls who dance when they see dad again. They are about violence, killing, domination, control, subjugation, and supposedly “peace” through unilateral force.

Violence still reigns in Iraq, Afghanistan is as violent and unstable as ever, US drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, NATO supported fighting in Libya and the CIA in Syria, rumors of war in Iran, massive military aid to Mexico and Columbia for the misguided war on drugs. Metaphorically, what she did was loose the forest for the trees.

She brilliantly turned our gaze away from the humanity we are destroying by inviting us to focus on the humanity we are supporting. This blind eye has given our last two Commanders-in-Chief near unlimited power to wield the sword of destruction wherever he wants. In other words, this same blind-eye war propaganda demands unquestioned allegiance to Caesar and not to Jesus., which, as best I can remember, is not the way this is supposed to shake out.

It’s clear at this point in the game it matters not who will be elected in November, peace will still mistakenly be sought through war. And death will be dealt in our name. This is not the only path! Violence, Caesar, empire and the myth that violence brings peace is precisely what the Christian faith calls us to repudiate.

My 12 Scriptures Lens suggests we need not otherize, demonize, or militarize at all. The American dream, and more importantly the Christian worldview, is NOT built upon an us/them, either/or philosophy where it’s essential to demonize someone else.

Though US evangelicals are more likely to support torture than any other group in the US, my lens humanizes the other:

The 23rd Psalm humanizes our enemies by setting us at table with them (a table God has prepared).

Isaiah tells me wolves will lie with lambs and calls us to turn our weapons into tools of productivity

Jeremiah humanizes our enemy by telling us our peace and wholeness are directly tied to the peace and wholeness of our enemies.

Jesus humanizes our enemies by asking us to examine the plank in our own eye and not the speck in our enemies.

Paul humanizes others by inviting us to consider others as better than ourselves, and having the same mind that was in Christ: whose strong trust in God allowed him to be killed but not to kill.

Scripture goes out of its way to humanizethe other, always making more room for more people: from self to family to neighbor to enemy.

It’s a myth that we must demonize our enemy. And its wrong to turn a blind eye to the fact of our demonization by humanizing half the soldiers in the conflict.

So I’m going to keep marching towards the second Tuesday in November with my lenses on. And, following after good examples before me, I’m going to deny myself and work hard to humanize pretty much everyone.

Doing so will demand I trust in God. No one else deserves my allegiance.

Peace!

Marty Troyer empowers people to choose Jesus’ narrative as pastor of Houston Mennonite Church. You can join us anytime in Spring Branch or visit us online at houstonmennonite.org. Follow Marty on Twitter.